Wireless communications networks are wide area cellular telephone networks providing information services to end users via end wireless communication devices, such as e.g. a hand-held telephone, a card in a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA). The wireless communication device is varyingly known as a User Equipment (UE), a terminal equipment, a mobile station (MS), etc., depending on the standard. The wireless communications networks offer a wide range of information services to the end users. The information services may be e.g. text messaging, high-speed internet access, video telephony and telephony. The different services contain varying amounts of information, that is to say they require different amounts of bandwidth when being transmitted. Text messaging, such as Short Message Service (SMS) require only a small amount of bandwidth when transmitted whereas video telephony on the other hand require a considerable larger amount of bandwidth, to handle and synchronize both sound and vision.
The wireless communications network comprises a plural of Radio Access Networks (RAN). RAN implements radio access technology allowing connectivity between the wireless communication devices and the Core Network (CN) via a radio antenna such as e.g. a Radio Base Station (RBS), a Node-B, Base Station (BS). The connection, i.e. the transmission path, between the wireless communication device and base station is called an up-link whereas the transmission path between the base station and the wireless communication device is called a down-link. The up-link and the down-link constitute the radio link. Typically, the radio link is the weak point of the transmission, providing the smallest amount of bandwidth. RAN may further comprise radio interface controllers, such as e.g. a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), providing control functionalities for one or more base stations. The wireless communications network is connectable to an infrastructure network such as a CN. The main functions of the CN is to provide switching, routing and transmission of user traffic. CN further enables charging and network management functions. Examples of such network management functions are measurement of radio link transmission performance and subsequent adjustments of transmission settings to enhance/optimize the transmission performance. These functions are in most cases performed by Operation & Maintenance (O&M) nodes such as e.g. an Operations Support System (OSS).
A challenge for operators of wireless networks today is to provide sufficient network coverage everywhere in all cells, thus enabling communication at highest possible data rates for all wireless end users. This may be the case for power regulated wireless networks such as e.g. the Third Generation (3G) wireless communication systems including the Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). In these power regulated wireless networks; the communication is limited to lower data rates to compensate for the increased power used when the network coverage is insufficient. This may be the case in rural areas with insufficient network coverage. Thus the user of the wireless communication device experiences less quality communication or even no communication at all. This limits the end users' communication. One way of enabling sufficient network coverage in rural areas may be to install more radio base stations. However, this is rarely economically advantageous since the number of end users is small.
The challenge of providing sufficient network coverage may also be valid in the case of highly populated areas with high traffic load, i.e. wherein there are too many simultaneous end users in the same cell competing for the bandwidth. When more wireless communication devices are become active in a cell and in adjacent cells, frequency interference becomes greater and thus error rates increase. As error rates increase, to maintain signal strength, the operator of the wireless communication system may decrease the maximum data rates allowable. Thus, one method of by which data rates can be increased in a cell is to decrease the number of active wireless communication devices thus clearing the airwaves of potential interference. However this is rarely an effective mechanism to increase data rates due to the loss of paying customers.
Yet another way of enhancing the network coverage to increase the data rates is to install an external antenna, such as e.g. a fixed external antenna, to the wireless communication device. Equipments using such fixed external antennas are e.g. portable or stationary equipment such as laptops with PC data cards, fixed wireless terminals (FWT) or mobile phones used instead of fixed lines in remote areas where there are no fixed telephone network.
The most common type of antenna for transmitting and receiving signals at the wireless communication device is an omnidirectional antenna. The signal transmitted from an omnidirectional antenna is sent with the same signal strength in all directions in a generally horizontal plane. The reception of a signal with an omnidirectional antenna is likewise omnidirectional. An omnidirectional antenna does not differentiate in its ability to detect a signal in one direction versus detection of the same or a different signal coming from another direction. The antenna pattern is commonly referred to as a donut shape with the antenna element located at the center of the donut hole. Omni-directional antennas are simple to install because they require no direction adjustment, and are thus often used in these cases.
When using an omnidirectional antenna connected to the wireless communication device, only a fraction of the total transmitted energy will be directed towards the remote base station. The rest will be transmitted away from the base station. This result in a lower antenna gain and inferior antenna performance compared to an antenna where most of the energy is directed towards the receiver, such as e.g. the base station.
A second type of antenna for use by wireless end equipments is a directional antenna. A directional antenna is a High-Gain Antenna (HGA) with a focused, narrow radio wave beam width. This narrow beam width allows more precise targeting of the radio signal. A directional antenna is an antenna which radiates greater power in one or more directions allowing for increased performance on transmit and receive and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performance over omnidirectional antennas when a greater concentration of energy in a certain direction is desired such as in the case of poor coverage in the cell or on the cell border. Directional antennas also provide increased capacity when being used on the individual links. Since the users of a cell in the wireless communication network shares the power of the radio base station, all users will benefit from the enhanced performance, and thus decreased power consumption, of one single user of the cell.
However, proper installation of a directional antenna is complicated. It often requires a technician using special testing equipment to adjust the direction of the antenna in a precise way to find the direction to the base station giving the best signal since this is normally not known. The special testing equipment may be e.g. software modified phones or spectrum analyzers. This method is technically very good and accurate but high labor cost often makes this option unrealistically expensive.
One way of directing a directional antenna is simply to point it in the direction of the closest base station. The problem with this is that the user often is unaware of the ideal direction to any base station. And even if the user knows the ideal direction to the closest base station, due to transmission reflections this ideal direction pointing straight towards the base station may not always be the best. Further it is difficult or even impossible for the user to know what network operator that is operating the particular base station and thus if it is the network operator of which the end user is a client.
A second way of directing the antenna is to use the signal strength indicators on the wireless communication device to direct the antenna. This is simple and easy but very imprecise since the in-built signal strength indicators of the wireless communication devices are hardware dependant. Thus the in-built signal strength indicators may be inaccurate and/or adjusted differently depending on the manufacturer of the wireless device. Further the in-built signal strength indicators are very rarely given in absolute numbers. Instead the signal strength indicators are often presented as block indicators, however the number of steps of the block indicators differs, examples are 2-10 steps. In some cases the wireless communication devices even completely lack such signal strength indicators.